Cristina Kotz Cornejo

Raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the US, Cristina Kotz Cornejo is an independent filmmaker whose debut feature film, 3 Américas (2007) premiered at the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival.

3 Américas has since screened at over 15 venues nationally and internationally ranging from Uruguay to San Francisco to New York City and is distributed by Vanguard Cinema, Cinetic Rights Management (Cinetic Media) and CinemaUNO in Mexico. The screenplay for 3 Américas was twice semi-finalist for the 2004/2005 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, participated in the IFP/NY Director’s Lab and was in the script competition at the 2003 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.

She is the recipient of 2004 and 2007 Moving Image Fund Grants from the LEF Foundation and was invited to attend the Sundance Institute’s 2004 Independent Producer’s Conference. Her short film, La Guerra Que No Fue/The War That Never Was (2004) has screened at over 25 national and international festivals in over 10 countries and is distributed by Ouat! Media.

She is a twice recipient of the Award of Merit from the University Film and Video Association for her short films, Ocean Waves (2002) and Ernesto (2000). Her thesis film at NYU, The Appointment (1999), developed under the advisement of Spike Lee and Nancy Savoca was awarded 3 NYU Craft Awards, a Warner Bros. Pictures Production Award, and a Dean’s Post Production Award and was distributed by Urban Entertainment.

Her film, Despertar (2011) has played festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Argentina, San Sebastian, Spain and Morelia, Mexico. Her film, Hermanas (2013), played at the 2013 Montreal World Film Festival, 2013 Short Shorts Mexico, 2013 Morelia International Film Festival, 2014 San Diego Latino Film Festival and 2014 Urban World Film Festival. Her film Buena Fe (2014) won the Spotlight Award and will soon be available on cable in the US and Europe in 2017.

Her documentary short film, Jewel and The Catch (1993) about African American LGBTQ activist, Jewel Thais-Williams was selected by OUTFest to be part of the OUTFest Legacy Project of UCLA’s Film and Television Archive. Excerpts from Jewel and The Catch can be seen in the opening credit sequence of season 3 of the Amazon series, Transparent by Jill Soloway.

Cristina is a 2010 Film Independent Project:Involve Fellow; a 2012 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a 2013 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow and a 2014 Cine Qua Non Lab’s Screenwriter’s Residency Fellow.

She is in various stages of several feature length films.

Cristina is a contributing author of Filming Difference: Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers on Gender, Race and Sexuality in Film, University of Texas Press, May 2009.